The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon

Mannnnnnnnnnnnnn, I love Jennifer McMahon. I loved The Invited and was excited the see a new book from her. Was I prepared for The Drowning Kind? No - and THANK GOD, because, I think this is already on my short list for the best of 2021?

Jax and Lex. Sisters. Friends. Enemies. Summers are spent in the large home of their grandmother, where there is a deep, dark pool that's cold as ice and seems to have no bottom. Fed from a spring, the pool has taken the life of a few, but no one has filled it in yet.

In current day, Lex is living in the house after their grandmother has passes. Jax hasn't spoken to her in a year. Lex calls, multiple times, leaving strange message after strange message. When Jax finally calls her back, she's told by her aunt, that Lex is dead. She's drowned in the pool.

In a separate storyline, in the 1920's, Ethel Monroe is married to a country doctor and wants nothing more than a child. Will, her husband, takes her away on a long weekend to the Brandenburg Springs Hotel, where people say the water grants wishes and heals the sick.. But, Ethel forgets the warning, that the water gives and the water takes away.....

The two story lines do converge. There's a ghosts....sort of. There's family drama. There's strange notes on paper. There's the spring, the dark water, the ice cold black water....where there's no bottom, and where sometimes there seems to be a flash of an arm or a hand....

This entire book was excellent, but...BUT, the epilogue put it OVER THE TOP in the very best possible way. I want this made into a movie, a mini-series. I need Mike Flanagan to take this and drown us all in the black water of the spring.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review. Thank you, most of all, to Jennifer McMahon for writing a new horror story for me to think about late at night.